Best Practices in Building Global Capacity for Corporate Teams

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As the building blocks of global organizations, virtual teams can provide a company access to diverse skill sets and expertise, knowledge and wisdom about emerging markets, and round-the-clock business hours for efficiency. However, effectively managing these dispersed teams requires overcoming difficult hurdles.

This primary research study addresses the micro view of global teams, versus the macro view of overall global organizational design, including how to help people work together more smoothly and efficiently.

Vice presidents, directors and managers associated with organizational effectiveness can use the valuable insights and supporting quantitative data to restructure the internal organization of global teams, adjust resources such as budget and headcount, and assess and implement best practices for communicating and working together.

Primary research was conducted through an online survey instrument with 59 representatives from 56 companies. Respondents have an average of 11 years of experience in working with global teams or in helping people work better together globally.Key topics include:

Why companies establish global teams

How companies measure progress toward globalization

Tools and practices that accelerate progress

Practices that facilitate working with other cultures, time zones and workplaces

Global team operating mechanisms most successful in working with other cultures, other time zones and conflicting workplace practices

Technologies found to be successful in enabling a global work environment

Percentage of companies that formally measure performance of global teams

Metrics used by benchmarked companies to evaluate the performance of global teams

Biggest pitfall to avoid in global teams management

Sample Key Findings

Participants say their most important lesson learned is to communicate. From simple tasks, like clarifying roles, to complex tasks, such as understanding the needs of global team members with respect to cultural differences, listening and communicating are keys to global team success.More than 50 percent of the tools, practices and techniques participants listed that accelerate progress toward becoming a global organization involve establishing and following common global team processes such as: Annual meetings, Open communications, Project management.

Table of Contents

Project Overview

Key Insights

Why companies establish global teams

How companies measure progress toward globalization

Tools and practices that accelerate progress

Practices that facilitate working with other cultures, time zones and workplaces

How progress of individual global teams is measured

Top improvement objectives for global teams

Key lessons learned for managing global teams

The biggest pitfalls to avoid

Detailed Findings

List of Charts & Exhibits

Top three goals or objectives in setting up global teams

Years taken to “go global” from the time benchmarked company began the global organization effort in earnest

Staffing organizations are frequently faced with the challenge of managing the recruitment and selection of top talent while contending with a large volume of requisitions... (ID HR-56)Companies Profiled: Allstate Insurance Company, Sanofi-aventis, Chiquita Brands International, Amgen, read more ...

Human Resources programs today are under the gun to hold down costs and, at the same time, visibly contribute to shareholder value... (ID PHR-206)Companies Profiled: Agilent Technologies, United Defense, Lantronix, Entergy, read more ...